99 On the present Staie of ihe [Frs. 
to so humiliating a distance even below mediocrity ; yet truth and 
candour require the acknowledgment. 
For the last 30 years the mathematics have been pursued on the 
Continent, and particularly in France, with an ardour and perse- 
verance that ensured the success with which that pursuit has been 
attended ; while in this country, if they have not retrograded, they 
have at least remained nearly stationary. I do not mean to assert 
that we have no mathematicians who have kept pace with the 
general improvements; I mean only that the greater part have not ; 
and that we have none, or very few works, that we can refer to as a 
favourable specimen of English science; while in France how many 
distinguished mathematicians has not the above short period pro- 
duced ? and how many brilliant discoveries do we not owe to their 
persevering industry and genius? The names of Laplace, La- 
grange, and Delambre, without enumerating many others of nearly 
equal eminence, will add more real splendour, and more durable 
monuments, to the glory of France, than all the victories that have 
been achieved by her arms; the one is transient, and may be 
eclipsed by reverses; the other is immutable, like the truths from 
which it emanates. 
If we even turn to Russia, a country but just emerging from 
barbarism, we shall find that it can boast of its mathematicians that 
would put Englishmen to the blush. Examine the Petersburg 
Memoires, and compare them, in point of mathematical discussion, 
with the Transactions of the Royal Society, and I am afraid that 
England would be a loser by the comparison. The Memoirs or 
Berlin, before the late fatal degradation of Prussia, were equally 
honourable to the scientific character of the Government and 
people. Even the littlestate of Brunswick has to boast of a mathe- 
matician of the first order; and Gauss, in his turn, has the proud 
satisfaction ef acknowledging the patronage and protection of the 
head of the state. Olbers, Arbogast, and Burckhart have each also 
done much for the honour of Germany. Sweden is another country 
rapidly rising in its scientific character, and even already holds a 
distinguished situation in this respect amongst the nations of 
Europe. Denmark, again, has its academy and prize essays ; 
while England alone—England, the first nation in Europe in every 
other respect, remains stationary, and feels herself inferior in the 
cultivation of those sciences which have ever been cherished by all 
civilized states, both ancient and modern. 
There may be some persons, who have thought little on this 
subject, that may be Jed to think this representation too strong, 
that the picture is overcharged, and that the writer is one of those 
anti-patriotic souls who would wish to elevate all that is foreign at 
the expense of every thing that is English. There is, perhaps, 
unfortunately, such a class of men in this country ; but if 1 know 
my own heart, Lam as directly opposed to such principles as the 
antipodes of the opposite hemispheres. My view is not to depre- 
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